ishtartv.com - thetablet.co.uk
28
March 2017 | by James
Roberts , Rose
Gamble
Iraq’s
remaining Christians, whose numbers have fallen from 1.5 million in 2003 to
around 200,000, 'could disappear within the next six to 12 months'
Iraqi Christians
feel betrayed by the failure of politicians and Christians in the West to
defend in a practical way their right to stay in their ancient homeland, the
aid coordinator for the archdiocese of Erbil has said.
Speaking the
day after the Westminster terror attack, Stephen Rasche, director of
resettlement programmes in Iraq, explained that following the genocidal
activities of Islamic State, there was still no justice for Christian
communities, in terms of the assistance they need to stay in the region.
“If the Christian
population is driven from the Middle East,” he warned, "history will not
blame Islamic State. It will blame the West, for standing by and doing
nothing."
The most telling
evidence of the continuing discrimination was in the work of the United
Nations. Of US$900 million in relief provided by the US through the UN, none
was finding its way to the Christians, because the UN judged they were
receiving help from elsewhere. There was also systematic discrimination against
Christian refugees in Turkey and Jordan, he said, in the processing of exit
visas.
Rasche rejected the
idea of creating enclaves in the Ninevah plains that would supposedly protect
Christians, because the numbers were now to small for that to work. In Iraq,
the idea was called the “zoo concept”, he said and the only valid principle was
for Christians to be fully integrated with equal rights.
Christopher Segar a
trustee of the Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East that
operates in Iraq and Jordan, said that “if there were stronger voices from
Christian leaders it would make our work much easier”.
A population of 1.5
million Christians before the US- and UK-led removal of Saddam Hussein in the
Iraq War of 2003 has been reduced to barely 200,000. “This is a culture that
predates Islam by 500 years,” Rasche pointed out. “Islam will not disappear
from Iraq but Christianity might.”
Iraq’s remaining
Christians, whose numbers have fallen from 1.5 million in 2003 to around
200,000, “could disappear within the next six to 12
months,” he explained, adding that it is vital that the international
community view them as “a threatened people on the verge of extinction, the
victims of horrific genocide."
He also warned that
supplies sustaining displaced Christians in northern Iraq will run out “within
weeks.” A clinic run by the archdiocese, which lies in the semi-autonomous
region of Kurdistan and is caring for almost 100,000 Iraqi non-Muslims who fled
Islamic State jihadists three years ago, has just 45 days’ of medicine
left, reports news site World Watch Monitor.
A UN Refugee
Agency spokeswoman in London told the Tablet: "Our aid is delivered
on the basis of need and not of religion."
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